I agree it's too intrusive (and also some would say it's even wrong and one should use an additional pair: <kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd><key>F1</kbd> </kbd>). But what is keeping you from rolling back that edit?
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ArjanMar 27 '12 at 6:08

@Arjan I did the markup intentionally because I think that markup should be done. (...no matter the real influence on display and/or formatting.) I don't want to revert it, I just don't like how it looks like.
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Alois MahdalMar 27 '12 at 7:35

@Arjan (That "feel wrong" part was meant ironically, I have removed it since now I realize it can be misleading.)
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Alois MahdalMar 27 '12 at 7:35

(Hmmm, I'd almost remove my upvote as I really feel your edit was too excessive and I dislike <kbd> for both its ugly rendering and wrong usage. But well, as I'm afraid it's here to stay, making it less intrusive helps a bit too...)
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ArjanMar 27 '12 at 15:59

Yes, the same way using too much emphasis in real speech would be. But unlike bold, the <kbd/> is not meant to emphasize. And I don't see such way as mentioning keyboard shortcuts too much.
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Alois MahdalMar 26 '12 at 23:37

3

@Alois: it is emphasis though. It emphasizes that it's a keystroke. The way you might say "Hold the Control key, the Alt key, and then press the Delete key in order to save your game" when doing phone support, but merely say "press control-alt-delete" when speaking to a co-worker who already knows that these are keys.
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Shog9♦Mar 27 '12 at 22:43

@Shog9 your point of view proves that there are other points of view than mine. Thanks. But (from Wikipedia): "emphasis is the exaggeration of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text—to emphasize them." When I review for markup, I do not want to think about what the rendering engine will make it look like (will it actually emphasize or not?). I merely want to preserve the information that this is a keystroke. Just as when you insert an <a/>nchor among other data: You don't really want to say "make it blue and underline it", do you?
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Alois MahdalMar 27 '12 at 22:54

I sympathize with your point of view, @Alois - and I do like your mock-up: the overlap shown in your question's screenshot is wrong no matter how you slice it. But I do think these are supposed to stand out a bit - you want them to be noticed.
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Shog9♦Mar 27 '12 at 23:02

Thanks, @Shog9. Yes, even I actually do want them to stand out a little---In a diffenent way on SO site, on Apple site, on mobile SE, on archaic-wooden-keyboards-club-site or when viewing any of those in Lynx.
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Alois MahdalMar 27 '12 at 23:07